Escape to London

Written by Mary Jane Staples
Review by Ann Oughton

Austria in 1938 sees Hitler’s tanks rolling through the streets of Vienna amid crowds of cheering supporters. Baroness Anne von Korvacs looks on in silence as her ex-husband, Count Ludvig Lundt-Hausen, a fanatical Nazi, drives past. When a stranger in the crowd surreptitiously slips something into her pocket she does not notice until later, but her apparent displeasure at the cavalcade when everyone else is frantic in their jubilation attracts the attention of one youth who proceeds to insult and accuse her. The stranger stands up to the youth and Anne is unwittingly drawn into a web of intrigue. Together with her family she must flee Vienna.

In this quick-paced, exciting read, Staples takes a break from the popular Adams Family stories and continues to please with an extensive cast of new characters and a realistic representation of Nazi-occupied Austria.